Tuesday, December 11, 2018

That is how many days since last editorial was published in The Palm Beach Post about our little City of Lake Worth with a BEACH.

The editor(s) at the Post haven’t even chimed in about this City changing its name to “Lake Worth Beach”.

Usually the lineup using the baseball analogy is a beat reporter at the Post writes two stories about a topic (two singles; which was done), then Frank Cerabino chimes in with another single filling the bases and then the editorial board tries to hit it out of the park but which usually ends up a single with a play at the plate and the inning is over.

The last editorial published in The Palm Beach Post about our little City was on August 28th, 2017.

What was it about? Find out below.

Anyhow, on the topic of “Lake Worth Beach” there is an important public meeting this Thursday (Dec. 13th at 6:00), a Special Commission meeting at Lake Worth City Hall. To read all about it click on this link.

Now back to editorials, or rather the absence of, about this little City of Lake Worth.

If you didn’t know, once upon a time it seemed like somebody sneezing at City Hall would elicit an editorial about this City. But that all changed in 2017.

That’s right, 470 days. Over 33½ fortnights since this City was topic #1 by the editor(s) at The Palm Beach Post on the editorial page. It was about that time last year when everyone was excited about the upcoming annual L-Dub Film Festival at the Stonzek. That was later cancelled because of a storm that formed off the coast of Africa. You may heard about that. It was later named Hurricane Irma.

And about the same time “Project title, RFQ 17-305” was big news here in the City of Lake Worth but was never worthy enough news to be published in the Post and that news still has not made the news this year. And the words “vibrancy” and “vibrant” were being used to describe the Gulfstream Hotel about this time in 2017 too.

Later, in November 2017, the Post was put up For-Sale and just last May 1st that newspaper was purchased by GateHouse Media. Have you read any news about that lately in the Post? The editor(s) last year excoriated our City officials and electeds over a medical marijuana facility on Dixie Hwy. and now this year medical marijuana is coming to West Palm Beach. So you see, medical marijuana is OK now.

Hard to believe isn’t it? Fifteen months and thirteen days since the last editorial was published in The Palm Beach Post about this City.

It’s sort of late now, but wouldn’t it be nice for the editor(s) to pen an editorial and at least acknowledge all the hard work and accomplishments during Irma last year by the public, City Manager Michael Bornstein, Electric Utility Dir. Ed Liberty, PIO Ben Kerr, the City staff, management and to also acknowledge the elected leadership and their incredible work during Irma?

Remember, the beat reporter covering this City, along with almost the entire staff at the Post, evacuated ahead of Hurricane Irma and didn’t come back until many days later when it was safe to return. However, thankfully for residents of Lake Worth, there were a few reporters at the Post like Joe Capozzi and others from NBC5/WPTV who hunkered in place and helped to get out the public safety news and updates from Public Information Officer Mr. Ben Kerr. Anyhow. . .

Now about that last editorial published about this City last year.

It was a doozy.

But as far as doozy’s go, nothing will ever come close to that silly editorial published in April 2016 that was the subject of a lot of fun, jokes, and even a Letter to the Editor by a City resident titled,

“The City that dines together. . .”

The editorial in August 2017, what was itall about? Find out below.

Without further ado, excerpts from the editorial published in the Post from August 2017:

“As of Friday [August 25th], however, Espinoza [charter school Principal Renatta Espinoza] said she hadn’t been able to contact [Gregg] Roberts and there had been no dialogue.” [emphasis added]

Well. The very next day Mr. Gregg Roberts, the chief executive officer of Modern Health Concepts, defending his marijuana dispensary across the street, located at 1125 N. Dixie Hwy. — a major bustling thoroughfare children should always be warned to avoid — wrote a “Point of View” published in the Post:

“Finally, as a matter of common courtesy, we hope there can be more truth in this discussion. I personally placed a phone call to Academy for Positive Learning’s principal, Renatta Espinoza, which I can only assume was immediately passed on to her attorney, as I received a phone call from him shortly after and we spoke for roughly 30 minutes.”